Playing House
by aceofspades57
Summary: Five-fifteen in the morning...There's a kid who insists on trying to kill you every chance that he gets. A girl who thinks screaming her heart out is the best way to get what she wants. A child whose quite likely to give someone a heart attack from his creepy behavior...and a little tyke who just loves to throw her food in your face. Ah, the joys of parenting... Ren x oc


**A/N: So, I thought I would try my hand at an UtaPri OC story since fanfiction seems to be lacking in these. Constructive criticism is always appreciated and I hope that anybody who is wary of Oc stories will give this one a fighting chance. So...Enjoy!**

**Peace**

* * *

**Playing House:** Exchange of Glances

The rollercoaster of emotions that resulted in a whirlwind crap storm large enough to envelop a small city was one of those that which people might have trouble comprehending. It had twists and turns that could possibly be classified in the 'soap opera' category. What set this crazy ride in motion was something as simple as a look in the wrong direction or-in this case, exchanging glances.

Doing volunteer work was all a part of the idol job. Appearances mean everything in show business and if you lack the capabilities to keep them up, well, you usually fall out of fame so quickly that the general public has not even heard a whisper of your name. Volunteering every now and again is a tactic used to make the public believe that whatever celebrity is volunteering is still a down-to-earth person and concerned about the welfare of the people. Though this tactic is generally used when the celebrity has had some scandalous accusation against him or her and the manager is trying to clean up whatever mess was made.

Haruka, darling that she is, suggested that they set a couple of months aside for each of them to do their own _hard core_ volunteer work.

All of them were beginning to get a bit stressed as their popularity increased and the workload became more and more demanding. They needed a vacation that also increased their value in the public eye. She wanted the volunteer work that they did to feel genuine to the public and not the same thing that other celebrities have been doing for the last couple of decades.

It would be like a big project for the people. And after three weeks of debating and planning, it was decided that each member of STARISH would pick an organization or group to lend their services to and work there-at the very least- for two months, six at the most.

So that explains perfectly well why Jinguji, Ren was holding a hysterical flailing child in his arms while trying to tend to three other children who were, not surprisingly, running amuck. The eldest of the four had already decided that he hated Ren from the moment he laid eyes on him.

Naoki- Age: 10 This joyous little bundle of sarcasm and hatred seemed hell bent on making any situation ten times worse. In total, the flirtatious idol had avoided six objects that were on a collision course with his face in the last hour.

Hibiki-Age: 5 Maybe it was the way his face would stay impassive even through the midst of the current chaos or the fact that he could remain virtually undetected for the longest of times only to have him pop up right in front of you…either way, the kid just a little bit on the freaky side. He was one of those kids that you can never tell what they're thinking.

Kaede- Age: 8 The adorable little girl that, for some reason felt the need to scream with all the power her little lungs could muster when Ren refused to be her horsey. Apparently, as he soon found out, she had a habit of doing so whenever the word 'no' entered a conversation.

Akane- Age: 2 As the idol quickly found out, the smallest member of the group turned out to have the most to say, even though none of them could figure out what she was saying. It also happens that little Akane-chan has an intense abhorrence of screaming.

In all honestly, he had it coming. While he and his fellow STARISH members were pondering which jobs to take, Natsuki suggested that they all try something out of their comfort zone.

Masato had taken a job in Costa Rica to help the elderly. Tokiya said he had volunteered at a farm though he wouldn't say where. Otoya volunteered at a nearby hospital. Syo and Cecil apparently- by some stroke of fate, karma, or whatever you would like to call it- volunteered at the same place, though neither would say where or what the job was. Natsuki volunteered to teach a six month beginners martial arts course in France.

Besides the chaos taking place in front of him, there was something else that was continuously popping up inside his brain. The lady that briefed him on the 'Special Program' that he had signed up for, mentioned another volunteer that would be working with him. After the woman finished explaining about how he would be living with the children in a notable apartment complex whose owner supported this 'Special Program' and how an agent would stop by every three weeks to check up on the children, she mentioned a partner that he would be working with. By the way the woman's eyes twinkled when she spoke of this, veteran volunteer of sorts, this guy or gal was a miracle worker.

Taking a quick glance at his watch while continuing to try and soothe the hysterical Akane, Ren sighed. Three hours, forty-six minutes, twenty-eight seconds…twenty-nine seconds…thirty and counting. 8:12 p.m. It had been three long and painful hours without a single word of that 'veteran volunteer' whom- at the moment- he had _dire _need of. Slowly but surely the child's cries became softer and softer until there was silence.

Reveling in his increased appreciation of the blessing called 'silence', a curt tug alerted him of a fairly miffed little girl. Arms folded across her chest and a near lethal stare sparked a slight feeling of dread in the idol. "Ren-san, Naoki stole my doll!"

Of course, it just had to be the munchkin demon…

Before he could even get a word in, the perpetrator popped out from behind a corner in protest. "I did not! Liar!" A small smirk slithered onto the boy's lips as he watched the girl's face turn bright red.

"I am not lying! You _stole_ her, I saw you!"

"Did not!" He replied, insisting on his innocence.

Taking a deep breath, Ren calmly walked over to the presumably guilty party and asked as politely as he could for him to return Kaede's doll. He could see a small shadow out of his peripheral vision which he assumed was Hibiki. The mini-demon's reply was a kick to the shin and a surprisingly vehement 'I'm not supposed to talk to strangers.' Kaede proceeded to take matters into her own hands.

She screamed and all hell broke loose.

Kaede lunged for the doll thief and when he ran, she ran after him swearing that once she got her doll back she would beat him over the head with it until he cried. The sudden uproar soon reached the ears of little Akane who followed the eldest girl's lead in screaming her tiny little lungs out. He truly wondered how he had managed to feed the little munchkins without losing an arm.

In the midst of such pandemonium, one could only pray for relief and that was exactly what Ren did. He hoped that that miracle worker was just around the corner and would be arriving in three…two…one.

Nothing.

The idol ran his free hand through his hair walking over to the room which Akane's crib was and gently placed her in. Then, the orangette rolled up his sleeves and strode back into the scene of chaos.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Out of breath and exhausted beyond belief, the orange-haired idol flopped on the couch that was to be the bed he would be sleeping in for the next five months. After hunting down and chasing both children around the apartment, he finally –forty-five minutes later -got them into the room that they shared and both fell asleep within five minutes. Hibiki, the only kid who wasn't inadvertently subtracting years from Ren's life, was in his room with Akane sound asleep. Peace and Quiet. These two were starting to become his best friends, right behind sleep. It didn't take very long for the idol to start dozing off. Within a few minutes, just like the children he had put to bed a few moments ago, he was out like a light.

A sequence of loud knocks startled the orangette awake at around one o' clock in the morning, causing him to fall quite unceremoniously off of the sofa and onto the hard wood apartment floor. He almost couldn't bring himself to get up off of the floor to answer whoever had the bright idea to visit at this most wonderful of times. Trudging sluggishly over to the door, almost tripping over the suitcase he had carelessly left lying on the floor, he placed his hand on the doorknob and turned.

He paused.

Now the door was stuck. Some fancy apartment this was…Trying the varying techniques like jiggling the doorknob and pushing on the door, the idol was becoming increasingly irritated at the stubbornness of the damn door. Was everything in this apartment out to get him?

"You might want to unlock it first." A mellow voice from the other side of the door told him. The voice was soft and undeniably feminine.

The sleep deprived orangette stared at the door for a while making sure to give himself a mental slap, unlocked the door and opened it. As he suspected, the voice on the other side of the door belonged to a female. She was quite unique looking. He could safely say that he had never seen a woman that looked anything like the one that was standing in front of him.

Her hair was straight and barely touched her shoulders with. It was a dark brown color that one could easily mistake for black. High cheekbones and dark brown eyes, the woman wore a white tank top with a navy blue vest over it, gray jeans and a pair of extremely worn and almost dilapidated engineer boots. She was around his age. Her skin was a light copper tone and Ren couldn't help but notice the tattoo of a paw print of some animal on her left arm.

"Sorry I'm late, I missed my flight although I was lucky enough to catch the next one which was only a couple of hours later. I'll keep this brief… I'm your partner for the volunteer project that you signed up for. My name is Inoue, Nova and my apartment is right next door, if you ever need me. See you tomorrow." And as quickly as she came, she left.

An apology and meeting at one in the morning. She could have at least waited until morning…How was she even awake after what was probably a super long, jet lag inducing plane ride? Well, all of those questions could wait until the sun's sweet rays decided to slap him awake.

Lying back down on the cushy beige couch, the flirtatious idol pondered for a brief moment the interaction. Yep, that one was _definitely_ a strange one.

* * *

Waking up to a strange but mouth watering smell in an apartment that you could have sworn was locked can be alarming to some people. Some have surprising acceptance while others have a more normal reaction.

In Ren's case, he had the normal reaction to a person that you barely know being inside you're apartment cooking breakfast. And whatever was cooking, it certainly wasn't Japanese food. "How did you get in here?"

Looking up from the frying pan that had previously had her undivided attention, the young woman that had introduced herself as Inoue, Nova glanced over at the previously sleeping man and let a wide smile light up her face.

"I have a key. Matsumoto-san gave me one just in case." The name drifted in Ren's mine for while before he recognized it as the name of the lady who had gave him the instructions on the 'Special Program'.

Hair tied up in a ponytail and flipping pancakes like a professional, the brown-eyed young woman replied, "And you might want to freshen up before breakfast. That is one _nasty_ bed head that you have there."

Letting the words sink in for a split second, the accomplished idol was in the bathroom in heartbeat. The reflection that stared back at him was nothing short of appalling; he very nearly had a heart attack. His bright orange hair was going out every which way giving him the appearance of the human embodiment of the sun. His button down striped shirt was untucked, wrinkled. He was a hot mess.

No wonder she smiled so hugely when she saw him. Oh-If this is what he looked like when he answered the door…Thank whatever deity that was controlling his life that no paparazzi were around. Now that would be something that he would never be able to live down. Hell, he wasn't sure he would be able to live _this_ down.

But as they say 'C'est la vie' and at the moment pride was one of the last things he needed. Quickly running back to grab a change of clothes from the suitcase that he had not moved since he almost broke his neck over it yesterday, the idol finished cleaning himself up just as the Nova was setting the table. He took the seat nearest to the window and rested his head in his palm.

"Took you long enough, Jinguji-kun."

Cocking his head to one side and feigning curiosity he asked, "You know my name?"

She waved her spatula in a partially menacing manner. "Don't even try that one. Who in Japan hasn't heard of STARISH?"

"So, you're a fan?" He said with a smirk.

The brown-eyed woman frowned tossing the orangette a sympathetic look. "Not quite…To put it nicely, idols aren't really my thing."

"Ouch, so the little kitten hates idols, there's one I honestly haven't heard before. I think I might just change your mind given the time." He added a wink for extra effect.

As he quickly learned, this girl was not one for frivolous flirtations or adorable nicknames.

"I mean this in the nicest way possible, Jinguji-kun… If you ever call me _that_ again, I will cut out your tongue without hesitation."

He shrugged, letting slip a small chuckle. "I think the lady protests just a little too much."

"Shakespeare. Cute." Taking down her ponytail she gave him intense glare. "Why don't you make yourself useful and go wake up the kids." She quickly switched from radiating poison to gumdrops and happiness. A smile spread across her face as she added a sweet 'please' which only added to the chill that went down Ren's spine.

Doing exactly as he was told, Ren woke up the four horrors, helped Akane clean up and checked to make sure the others did so as well. He walked out holding onto little Akane's hand and was quite surprised when the biggest and eldest horror, jump tackled the newest arrival to their group.

"Nova-san! You came back!" No words could describe the joy on that ten-year-old's face.

Who knew? Even mini-demons can love.

His expression said it all. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the biggest horror out of the four mini horrors had a crush on his partner.

"Oh, Naoki, is that you? Man, you've gotten tall. I swear you were half this size the last time I saw you." Gesturing towards the table she said, "Come on, let's eat."

A curt pull on his sleeve alerted him of Kaede who seems to now have the same supernatural ghost powers that Hibiki has. "Ren-san, who is that?"

"My partner, she'll be helping me take care of you guys." Grabbing a seat, and with as much sass as humanly possible, the little girl replied, "Good, you _really_ need it."

With a curt sigh, Ren placed Akane in her high-chair and began to spoon feed her whatever mush was in that bowl. By the scent of cinnamon in the air, he guessed it was oatmeal.

"Nova-san, if you're here, then why do we need _him_." Naoki pointed at Ren with his fork and an ugly sneer.

"He's my partner and we are going to help each other take care of you guys. Now that I mention it, I don't know all of you." She turned her gaze towards the young girl who was grasping a battered looking doll in her hand.

"What's your name?"

All of a sudden the young girl felt a sense of shyness wash over her with the young woman's gaze."I'm Kaede."

"Nice too meet you, Kaede-chan. I'm Nova. So, what do you like to do?"

"I-I like to play with my dolls."

"That's awesome. When I was your age I had a whole collection of dolls! In fact I felt that no doll lover's life was complete without a proper collection. How many dolls do you have."

The girl's face fell ever so slightly. "Just this one."

"Well then, what do you say later this week, we get you started on that collection?" She said with a smile that oozed gentleness.

"Okay." Just like Naoki a few minutes before, her face had lightened up like a Christmas tree.

Next she looked over to the impassive boy sitting to her right. "And your name?"

"Hibiki."

"And what do you like to do Hibiki?"

"Stuff."

"What kind of stuff."

"Normal stuff."

"Okay then." Some people would press the kid for further information but she knew better. He was just one of those types of kids.

"And who is this?" Nova shifted her gaze to the smallest girl who replied with her mouth still full of oatmeal, "Akane!" Although due to the oatmeal that afterword flew out of her mouth, it sounded more along the lines of 'ashashe'. The brown-eyed female picked up a napkin and walked over to the little girl, taking note of the orangette who was mouthing 'Akane'

Gently wiping the oatmeal off of the child's face she said "Well, Akane-chan, what do you like to do?"

"I wike hoo ea!" Thankfully the veteran volunteer knew how to decipher baby-mouth-half-full-of-food talk. "Not a problem, you'll get lots of yummy food."

In a word, this woman was amazing. She did everything Ren couldn't within brief conversations. He now knew exactly why the lady, Matsumoto-san, had sung her praises. She really was a life-saver.

"Aren't you going to ask anything about me?" Naoki asked with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"I already know everything about you, Naoki. There's no way I couldn't." The brown eyed-female turned her attention to the orangette. "What about you, Jinguji-kun? What do you like to do?"

"I love to play my saxophone and more importantly, I love beautiful ladies such as yourself, Inoue-san." He saw Nova's eye twitch a couple of times before she nodded slowly. He really needed to make a mental note about flirting with this girl because if it continued then he really might end up losing his tongue. And that would not be good for him or STARISH.

This also succeeded in pissing off one more person at the table. Ren noticed the young boy staring daggers at him. If looks could kill…he would be dead two times over. Suddenly Naoki stood up, taking his empty glass of what used to be orange juice and filled it with tap water.

Now normally drinking tap water is advised against because of organisms that could get into it but this water was most definitely not for drinking. It turns out that the little munchkin has anger issues. He took the glass of water and dumped it all over the idol's head.

Nova gaped, sufficiently hiding her immense amusement. Hibiki stared quietly while Kaede snickered uncontrollably. Little Akane seemed to be enjoying the show more than anybody.

"Oops, my hand slipped."

This was without any sliver of a doubt going to be the longest five months of Jinguji, Ren's life. And with this kind of beginning, it boded all but well.


End file.
